There is a pernicious trend that has forever existed in politics: Populism. This ugly little word, this loathsome little lexeme, has done a grave disservice to the American electorate. Politicians smirk as they call themselves “populist candidates”; pundits pat themselves on the back for being “populist”; writers, documentarians and other artists ruminate on the positive role of “populist thinkers”. However, we should find it undesirous to bow to groupthink, or cow to mob mentality. What we need is a little more elitism – if that is even the right word for it.
Frankly, I do not think it is.
Elitist is the pejorative moniker populists ascribe to their foes. Aside from this, it has little meaning. Populism exists on both the right and the left, meaning the so-called “elites” also exist on either the right or the left. In short, populism puts a high premium on subservience to unyielding doctrines.
Rush Limbaugh, for example, is radio’s king of populism. He ascended to popularity in the early 1990s, during Bill Clinton’s first term as President. His “dittoheads” – who repeat Limbaugh’s words as if they were sacred scripture – have been omnipresent ever since. But most of his words have little or no importance. After the 2006 midterm election, Limbaugh attempted to convince his listeners that conservatism did not die.
“You must look inward and ask first, ‘What did we do wrong? What could we have done better? What mistakes did we make?’” Maybe, but politics is not Narcotics Anonymous, Rush; there is no need for your Republican listeners to seek penance for their sins or categorically list their wrongdoings. That would take years.
Limbaugh has staked his career on fomenting a cadre of “Limbaugh Republicans.” And since his career took off, the radio has become a dumping ground for conservative populists in the same vein: Michael Medved (Christian, movie critic populist), Michael Savage (homophobic, jerk to his listeners populist), and Sean Hannity (Rupert Murdoch’s cabana boy, Fox News populist). Conservative populism has become a cult of personality, but liberals are quickly getting in on the act as well. The man leading the movement is Lou Dobbs.
Recently, Jacob Weisberg, of the online magazine Slate, wrote a column detailing the rise of “Lou Dobbs Democrats”. Dobbs, as you may already know, is under the employ of CNN, where he stars in an infotainment program that no one with any sense watches. On his program and in his weekly column, Dobbs dispenses populist bon mots, though he doesn’t call them such – bon mots being French and Dobbs being an isolationist.
“The free-trade orthodoxy, made up not only of Republicans but still a sizable number of Democrats, appears to be spouting ever-louder lies and disturbing distortions of truth and reality as their desperation over the ascension of the ‘Lou Dobbs Democrats’ on Nov. 7 is becoming more shrill, verging on outright panic,” wrote Weisberg in a pre-election column.
But this may change. Hiding under Dobbs’ terribly ungrammatical prose is a philosophy that, according to Weisberg, has gained traction among a small faction of Democrats. Weisberg considers both James Webb, D-Virginia, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to be Lou Dobbs Democrats. James Webb because he opposes Bush’s guest worker program and Brown because he opposes free trade, which is sort of like opposing gravity.
Both of these positions are patently ridiculous, and it is strange that Dobbs shares them. Over the course of his 26 years at CNN, where he has served as both an on-air personality and a corporate executive, Dobbs has morphed from a center-right Republican to a bat shit crazy purveyor of nonsense. Dobbs’ current views should be called “Xenophobic Mercantilism”.
Dobbs’ populism is best encapsulated in his views on illegal immigration. He has run numerous segments on his program detailing the work of the Minuteman Project, the vigilante group attempting to seal off the Mexico-Arizona border because the INS is “not doing its job”. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks white supremacist groups, has documented the lies, distortions and omission of facts perpetrated by Dobbs’ program, including the revelation that a large number of Minuteman Project leaders have ties to white supremacist organizations.
Other populists include Ariana Huffington, Thomas Friedman, Jon Friedman, Senator John Edwards, Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock and my close personal friend Bill O’Reilly.
There is something ironic about politicians, plutocrats and pundits railing against the scourge of elitism. Clearly, the irony is lost on them. These people use the word to signify something they detest – a personage, a movement or a philosophy
However, populism is nothing more than shrouded guilelessness. It is rhetoric built on a foundation of simplicity – everything from Thomas Friedman’s lame metaphors to Limbaugh’s overwrought bluster to Bill O’Reilly’s quixotic campaign against the “War on Christmas.” It revels in creating a dichotomous relationship between the “people” and the “elites”, who are characterized as either haughty liberals or money-grubbing conservatives. It feeds on the ephemeral whims of our most reactionary citizens, leading to poor economic choices, xenophobia, racism, and ignorance. Perhaps we need to start acting more “elitist”.
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